Going back to work...

WhiteStrat

WhiteStrat

Don't stare at the eye.
<personal life rant>

About six months ago, I lost my job. I'm fortunate in that it didn't wreck my life like it would have in the past. Our bills are paid, we had plenty in savings, and my wife was doing well. So yeah, at the young age of 48, I thought this might just be early retirement!

In the past 6 months, I learned a couple things.

First, I thought I'd live in the studio and use all this free time to write and record the best album ever. Nope. I haven't recorded a single track in well over a year.

Second, I thought we might struggle financially at least a little bit. Nope. I did alright doing freelance media work and business consulting. Besides that, I really am a kept man. My wife makes plenty.

I also thought I'd sleep till noon every day and stay up all night. Nope. I started feeling guilty for not having a "real" job, so I got up with her every morning. Then earlier and earlier. I'm now getting up at 5:30 every morning and heading to bed at 9:00 pm!

But the real lessons surprised me. As well as my wife does in her work, she doesn't like doing it alone. That's not good for her. And I've always done best musically when under stress. The song only seems to come out when I have to fight for it. Perhaps that's why I've been so musically dry...

In the past six months I've loved being semi-retired. I've worked the land, improved the house, and watched my granddaughter two days a week.

But all that is ending.

While I only looked for new work half-heartedly, work found me. Someone I used to work with contacted me. I wasn't desperate for work, so I played it cool. I did a couple interviews and then asked for twice what I used to make. Hey, what do I have to lose?

They offered me more than I asked for, and gave me 5 weeks paid vacation. I guess I can be bought. So I'm going back to work on 11/2. As much as I don't desperately need it (or even want it), I'm looking forward to it.

While in semi-retirement mode, I got financially conservative. Now I'm gonna have some fun. I see a new truck and a vintage Les Paul in my immediate future. After that, look for some new tunes. I'm sure I'll get frustrated with work and turn to my music for an outlet!

Hopefully this is the last chapter in the "work" book. I'd really like to chill out and make music. I should have done so in the past year. Maybe I'll learn my lesson this time around!

</personal life rant>
 
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That's good news that you're back on track again. :thumbs up:

I had a no-work period once for about 6 months...while I managed to get some recording done, it also wasn't as fruitful for me.
I guess when you have a lot on your mind, it's hard to just go be creative.
 
So what type of job do you do? Is it the same as before? I only ask because that's a pretty dang big swing in salary. Glad work found you!
 
I have found, the more time you have to do something, the less likely you are to do it. We humans require pressure and work. If it is left wide open, we do not perform well (as a general rule). The more we have of something, the less we want it, and that includes time.

Congrats, now as soon as you find yourself too busy to know whether you are coming or going, write some good stuff!
 
DM60 said:
I have found, the more time you have to do something, the less likely you are to do it. We humans require pressure and work. If it is left wide open, we do not perform well (as a general rule). The more we have of something, the less we want it, and that includes time.

Congrats, now as soon as you find yourself too busy to know whether you are coming or going, write some good stuff!
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^^ Truth ^^

I've had a very similar experience. I left my job in October of 2013 to move up here to Indiana. I figured that I would have plenty of time for anything. What I figured and what actually happened were two totally different things. Too much time, for me anyway, means more time to procrastinate. "It can wait" is easier to say when you have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to get things done. I went back to school a year after I moved up here just to have some sort of weekly routine to make sure that my time was properly rationed; house projects got done more quickly when school started just because there was some sort of deadline attached to not only my free time but also to homework. Having to have a plan for the day, a solid course of action, helped to balance out everything...and still have at least an hour or two to play around with the strung up toys hanging on the wall turned up enough to make the windows rattle a little bit.

The recording happens rarely though, that's something that needs to change soon...creative juices ebb more than they flow with everything else going on... :o
 
I was in the same situation, was out of work for 7 months. it was tough, spent all my savings but at least I had some. Congrats on the new job.:D
 
I wondered why I saw you on FB so much!

shame you lose that quality time with your grandaughter...you looked like you were having fun.

My daughter was two in August, the day before here birthday was the eighth anniversary of me stopping work, at 48 I cant see me doing it ever again. I really hate work, not that I like doing nothing, but the meaningless tasks that we go through to earn enough to barter to keep as alive or buy useless rubbish, its a shit system we've devloped and one we're stuck with...Im still recording though, its just taking a long time. Dunno what Ill do when both the kids arent in the house, at the moment thats my full time job, but my wifes never hassled me anyway. Besides Ill die quite soon, being Scottish doesn't give me the longest life expectancy :D
 
guitaristic said:
So what type of job do you do? Is it the same as before? I only ask because that's a pretty dang big swing in salary. Glad work found you!
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In my last job I had two worlds. I was the creative guy (video and audio for marketing purposes) but also a software troubleshooter (Sharepoint, SQL, etc...) My old company had nearly 2000 employees, and to half of them of them I was "the media guy." To the other half, I was the "Sharepoint/network guy.".

At my new job, I'll be the software engineer guy. It may sound boring, but I'm looking forward to it. I was recruited by this guy who used to work with me on the tech side. As such, he only knew my technology/software side. He didn't know my creative/marketing side at all.

So I'll be the Sharepoint admin, and a software engineer working with with proprietary apps in the realm of healthcare testings and diagnostics.
 
kcearl said:
I wondered why I saw you on FB so much!

shame you lose that quality time with your grandaughter...you looked like you were having fun.

My daughter was two in August, the day before here birthday was the eighth anniversary of me stopping work, at 48 I cant see me doing it ever again. I really hate work, not that I like doing nothing, but the meaningless tasks that we go through to earn enough to barter to keep as alive or buy useless rubbish, its a shit system we've devloped and one we're stuck with...Im still recording though, its just taking a long time. Dunno what Ill do when both the kids arent in the house, at the moment thats my full time job, but my wifes never hassled me anyway. Besides Ill die quite soon, being Scottish doesn't give me the longest life expectancy :D
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Thanks Keith! But I'm not gonna lose that time with Piper! I'm just gonna find it in other places. And I'm gonna work my ass off to retire just as soon as any decent Scot would!
 
ocnor said:
I'm glad to hear that life is treating you well.
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Thanks Ocnor! Life has always treated me well! I have no complaints! I just have to get back to playing guitar. BTW--are you still playing through your Legacy? I loved your sounds--I've got to get to back to that myself!
 
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